Two Cougs, two Bulldogs drafted

Two Gonzaga Bulldogs and a pair of Washington State Cougars were selected Tuesday in the Major League Baseball draft.

Gonzaga outfielder Drew Heid was the ninth-round selection of the Los Angeles Angels. Heid, who hit .390 leading off for the Bulldogs, was the 294th overall pick.

Bulldogs junior right-hander Cody Martin was taken in the 20th round – 615th overall – by the Minnesota Twins. He led Gonzaga with five victories this season.

WSU redshirt junior pitcher Chad Arnold was chosen by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 18th round – the 562nd overall pick. Teammate Shea Vucinich, a junior shortstop from Coeur d’Alene High, was picked in the 20th round by the Milwaukee Brewers – 609th overall.

Ryan Brett, an infielder who has signed a letter of intent to play for Gonzaga next season, was a third-round pick of the Tampa Bay Rays. The 98th overall pick will graduate from Highline, near Seattle, in June.

Five LCSC players drafted

The Lewis-Clark State Warriors had five players drafted – including Lewiston High grad Tyler Knigge.

Knigge, a pitcher, went in the 13th round – 381st overall – to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Also chosen were: catcher Kawika Emsley-Pai (11th round) by the Arizona Diamondbacks; Josh Ashenbrenner (18th) by the Detroit Tigers; infielder Todd Muecklisch (26th) by the Florida Marlins; and infielder Brian Burke (29th) by the Minnesota Twins.

M’s take former first-rounder

The Seattle Mariners used their fourth-round pick in baseball’s amateur draft to select a first-rounder.

Among the 29 players they got on the second day of the three-day draft, the Mariners took 22-year-old James Paxton, a left-handed power pitcher with an intriguing story.

Paxton, who grew up in the Vancouver, B.C., area and starred at the University of Kentucky, was the Toronto Blue Jays’ supplemental first-round pick last year. Then agent Scott Boras became involved and things became muddled – between Paxton and the Blue Jays and then Kentucky.

The sides didn’t reach an agreement with the Blue Jays, so Paxton decided to return for his senior season at Kentucky. However, the university had concerns that Boras was involved in talks with the Blue Jays in more than an advisory capacity, and his eligibility was questioned by the NCAA.

The family sued the university, but Paxton left school this spring and played independent ball with the Grand Prairie AirHogs in Texas. He went 1-2 with a 4.08 earned run average and 18 strikeouts in 17 2/3 innings.

In his junior year at Kentucky, Paxton went 5-3 with a 5.86 ERA, and his 13.2 strikeouts per nine innings ranked third in the NCAA.

Seattle’s third-round pick was Kansas prep pitcher Ryne Stanek. The M’s chose Tennessee Tech pitcher Stephen Pryor in the fifth round and high school catcher Christian Carmichael of Hawaii in the sixth round. Oregon State third baseman Stefen Romero was the team’s 12th-round selection.

Managers’ sons picked

The sons of major league managers Jim Leyland, Bruce Bochy and Ozzie Guillen were among the players selected during the second day of the baseball draft.

Leyland’s Detroit Tigers took his son, Patrick, in the eighth round. Patrick Leyland is a 6-foot-2 catcher from Bishop Canevin High School in Pittsburgh, who has a scholarship waiting from Maryland.

The Chicago White Sox took Guillen’s son, Ozney, a Florida high school outfielder, in the 22nd round.

San Francisco selected Bochy’s son, Brett, a right-handed reliever from the University of Kansas, in the 20th round.